Welcome back to The Present Leader.
AI is changing how work gets done. You’re already seeing it with your team. The work is faster. More polished. It’s also harder to see the thinking behind it, and this is changing how you lead.
A brief that used to take all morning now gets done before your first coffee. That’s where things start to feel off.
If the work is solid, your role becomes less obvious. If there’s less to fix, the value you add is harder to see.
And yes, some teams are shrinking. Square, Shopify. Managing fewer people than you were six months ago isn’t just a number. It changes your day-to-day reality.
Your team needs something different from you now.
Insight: AI is revealing where managers actually add value
The managers who feel this the most are the ones who built their value in the process. They were essential because they oversaw execution, caught mistakes, and kept timelines on track.
That work matters. But AI is doing more of it now.
The work comes in cleaner. There’s less to fix. Fewer obvious gaps. And that creates a different kind of pressure.
If you’re not fixing the work, where do you add value?
The managers who hold their ground here aren’t the ones who double down on review. They’re the ones who shape the thinking before the work starts. They ask better questions. They set direction earlier. They make it clear what matters before anything gets produced.
Judgment. Perspective. Direction. Coaching.
This was always part of the job. Now it’s the part that matters.
A pressure agency managers know but rarely talk about
There’s a second pressure that agency managers are starting to feel.
When work that used to take half a day gets done in an hour, the math that used to work doesn’t quite add up.
You’re producing more. But is the client seeing more value, or starting to question the invoice?
The problem isn’t that your value went down. It’s that speed made your thinking invisible.
The insight. The strategic framing. The judgment call that made the work worth sending. That was always the product. You just didn’t always have to prove it.
You do now.
If clients don’t understand what they’re paying for, they’ll eventually stop paying for it. Making your thinking visible is now part of the job.
Real Leadership Story: Fast work isn't the bar
A manager I worked with led a team responsible for daily, client-facing coverage reports. When AI tools became available, they encouraged the team to use them.
Turnaround times dropped. Capacity went up. On paper, it was working.
Then a client pushed back on a report. The information was accurate. The writing was solid. But the insight was thin. It didn’t really capture why any of it mattered to the business.
The manager brought it back to the team. And in that conversation, it became clear what was missing.
They had been reviewing the work. But they hadn’t been leading it. They were checking the output. Not shaping the thinking behind it.
So they changed their approach.
At the next status meeting, they asked different questions: What does the client actually need to walk away understanding? And what’s the most important part of the coverage report?
AI could still generate the draft. But the thinking had to come first. And it had to come from the team: their understanding of patterns, context, and what actually matters.
The work got stronger. Client feedback improved. And the team started building judgment they wouldn’t have developed if AI had just done the job for them.
Tool of the Week: The Before Question
Before your team uses AI to produce something (a report, a deck, a proposal), ask one question: What’s the thinking we need to get right before we start?
This question changes where the work starts. Instead of producing first and refining later, your team must articulate:
• what they’re actually trying to say
• who it’s for
• what they want that person to do or believe
This is where your role delivers value. Not in reviewing the output, but in guiding the thinking that drives it.
Try it this week with one project. That conversation (the one before AI gets involved) is where your role as a manager matters most.
Question to Sit With This Week:
If your client watched how your team built the work, would they understand what they're paying for?
Got a leadership challenge? Email me at [email protected] and I’ll tackle it in a future issue of The Present Leader.